Relocation
by Soelke
Summary: She knows that this situation is none of her business, and yet she has become involved somehow.  Hopefully, things will work themselves out over time.
1. Chapter 1

What am I doing?

If there's one thing I know for sure, it's that this is none of my business. This job is better suited for my mistress, or the teacher from the Human Village. In this situation, I'm just an uninvolved party. I should be worrying about patrolling the Boundary or fixing the dress my daughter ruined while she was out playing. I should not be here.

Sitting in front of me is a little girl. She is no more than five years old, with a red ribbon in her silky black hair and prayer beads around one of her wrists. Her shrine maiden's garb looks fresh and new, as if she is wearing it for the first time. With innocent, dark red eyes she looks up at me, as if unsure of what to make of me.

The longer I look at her, the more of her mother I see in her. It's not noticeable at first glance, but they really do look alike. There are stories in the Outside World of children who were born with teeth. This girl isn't from the Outside World.

A feeling in my gut tells me she shouldn't be here, either, but she has to be. There's no other choice. It's more convenient for her to be here than where she was before. Still, the life she left behind is fresh in her mind. I wonder what my daughter would do, if she were in such a situation…?

"Raaan."

I'm jolted out of my thoughts as the child calls out to me. I kneel down in front of her, and put on my warmest smile.

"Yes?"

She suddenly becomes shy and looks away. After a moment, she looks back.

"When do I go home?"

Why must children be so candid? That's not a question I want to answer.

"This is your home," I say simply. She blinks.

"But…but…mama isn't here," she frets. I don't think I can break this to her. I stand back up and turn away from her. She is young, but this is something she can figure out on her own. How quickly a child can pick things up is underestimated.

There's a long silence, and then I hear her start to sniffle. Her breathing becomes more audible, and is peppered with hiccups. It turns to gasping sobs, and finally she starts to wail. Her cries resonate throughout the shrine and do not show any sign of stopping.

It's painful to listen to, it's best to let her cry it out. I am not the one who is going to be holding her in a few hours, anyway.

The clouds roll on, and her wails quiet into sobs, then hiccups, and finally the only sound is her sniffling.

My mistress will be here in exactly twenty minutes. I can't let her see this girl's tear-stained face. Perhaps I should have done something to comfort her, after all. I turn back around and kneel before her once again. Her face is red, and she is scrubbing the tears from her eyes with her sleeve. I wonder what I should do to cheer her up?

…That's right!

"Look!"

The little girl looks up. I take one of my nine tails in my hand and bring it in front of me. "I have a daughter who's older than you, but even she can't resist my tails. They're so fluffy and soft, want to try petting one?"

No one can resist my tails. My daughter has ended many days by falling asleep on them, rather than go to her own bed. I've lived with these tails for nine hundred years and counting, so the softness is a mundane, ordinary thing for me. But children in particular love my tails, just as they are attracted to anything that is soft.

Sure enough, the little girl reaches out to feel the soft fur. Her grief is briefly forgotten, and a smile breaks out on her face. She experimentally pats the tail, and then wraps her arms around it.

"So sooooft~" she coos. I smile and stroke her hair, letting my maternal instincts take over. She doesn't remind me of my daughter at all, but a child is a child.

If I could, I would take this girl back to where she came from. She would be with her real mother, but that idyllic future is not the reality. This is none of my business and I shouldn't be here, for she is not my child.

Time ticks by, and the girl has fallen asleep. The sun is dipping lower in the sky now. She should be coming any minute.

A gap opens in the air.


	2. Chapter 2

The sun has almost set. I watch as the figure of a woman emerging from the gap. Her long, blonde hair is tucked under her mob cap, and she dons a long-sleeved purple and pink dress. As the soles of her feet hit the cobblestone pathway, she opens a decorative parasol above her head. The gap closes and disappears, as if it wasn't there in the first place. I pick up the sleeping child, turn around, and bow.

"Yukari-sama. I have accompanied the daughter of Hakurei no Kannushi as you have requested."

Yukari twirls her parasol idly as she eyes the little girl in my arms. "You got her to sleep, at least. It would have been a pain dealing with her if she was awake," she muses, and takes the girl from me with one arm. She cradles the child against her body, and I wonder briefly how many powerful beings this girl has been held by.

Yukari smiles at the girl fondly, and then turns to me with a much colder expression. "You are free to go."

Without another word, I bow to Yukari again and take to the skies. There's no reason for me to stay here, now that my mistress has come. Besides, I have business at home.

* * *

"Ran-samaaa! Welcome back!"

I have barely stepped into the house when I hear pattering footsteps. A girl with short, dark brown hair and earthy-colored eyes come running down the hallway, holding a workbook. Her forked cat tail flickers in excitement as she skids to a halt in front of me. She holds the workbook in front of her as if it were the Holy Grail itself.

"Hello, Chen, what's that you've got there?"

"It's my homework!" Chen says. "Yukari-sama has assigned me some math problems, so will you help me?" She flashes a sheepish grin. I smile right back at her. Chen's strong suite isn't math, but I know she's a smart girl. After all, she wouldn't ask me for help if she were learning new kanji.

"Of course. What's it on tonight?" I ask as I slip off my shoes.

"The multiples of twelve. If I don't get it right this time, I'm dead!" When she says this, I can't help but wonder what she had been told. When it comes to Yukari, I can never shake the fear of not knowing whether or not her threats are baseless.

When I follow Chen into the living room, I see that there are still dishes on the table from the dinner I had prepared Chen before heading out. I raise an eyebrow. "Chen, didn't I tell you to clean up after eating?" I ask sternly.

Chen's cat ears perk up, and she laughs nervously. I can't help but sigh. "Well, clean it up, then. I'll help you on your homework after that." I pause. "But only half of it, since you forgot to clean up."

Chen gapes at me. "No fair!" She starts to stack the dishes on the table. "Ran-sama, you're meeeaan~"

I play along, chuckling at her. Chen has no idea how lucky she is. Her biggest problems are chores and math.

In the end, I take back what I said and help her with all of her homework.

* * *

"Ran."

Chen has long since fallen asleep on my tails, and I have long since moved her to her own bed. When Yukari calls out to me, I am sitting on the porch with a cup of tea. I look up to see her hanging out of a gap. She looks tired. I wonder if that child woke up after I left?

"I'm visiting Yuyuko tomorrow with Chen, so I'm leaving the little Hakurei to you. Oh, and take this to Kourindou."

"Understood."

Yukari throws me a small box and disappears into the gap, presumably to go to sleep.

* * *

_This was supposed to be a oneshot what is this second chapter doing here aaagghhh_

_I was debating whether or not to keep going with first person present tense or third person omniscient past tense...um, that sounds kind of confusing, doesn't it. In the end, though, it's meant to be short and sweet, so I focus more on content than length. I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but I'm know I'm going to have fun with it~_

_Also, a heads up: this story will not be told through Ran's point of view exclusively._


	3. Chapter 3

It's really, really bright outside, but not so much behind the shrine. There are a lot of trees over there, and it's really pretty. There's a lake, too. I found a huge turtle there earlier named Genji. He has a beard! Right now, I sit on the turtle's back as he floats across the lake. The water's really sparkly, and there are lots of fish. I wonder if there are diamonds in the lake. Maybe that's why it's so shiny.

"Genjiii, what are these fish called?" I ask. They're all sorts of pretty colors and flit around in the water.

'_Those are koi fish.'_

"I want one!" I lean over the water's edge, watching the water reflect on my outstretched hand. It's so pretty that there's no way there aren't diamonds in here. "I bet if I reach in I can."

Genji turns away from the school of fish, and I nearly fall into the water. I'm forced to cling to his shell to keep from losing my balance. _'That would be an unwise decision. Those fish can only thrive in water, and you can't swim.'_

"As long as I can stick my hand in the water it's fine, right?" I ask hopefully. Genji shakes his head.

As the morning goes on, I curl up on Genji's back and close my eyes, trying to block out the light.

Maybe I should try talking to Genji. "Genji." Genji doesn't respond, and continues to float lazily over the water's surface. "Hey, Genji. Genji. Hey, listen!" I whack his shell a few times to get his attention.

'_Hmmm?'_

"When's mama coming?"

'_She's not.'_

"Why?"

'_She has agreed to hand over your custody to Yukari-sama.'_

"Why?"

'_Because of your duty as the Hakurei shrine maiden.'_

I don't know what custody is.

"Genji, what's 'custody'?"

'_It's the possession of something or someone.'_

I rest my cheek against Genji's shell and think. Because mama handed over my…custody…to the gap lady, she can't come and see me.

"That's it!" I sit up. "If I get my custody back from Yukarin and give it back to mama, she'll be able to come see me!" Genji nods.

'_That sounds like quite the plan.'_

I suddenly hear a voice coming from the front of the shrine. "Is anyone here?"

Is Yukarin back? I want to run out front and see who it is, but Genji's slow when he glides across the lake. As soon as we reach the land, I run out to the front of the shrine and call out. "Yukarin?"

I stop in my tracks. It's not Yukarin.

Ran kneels in front of me and smile. "It's good to see you doing well."

I squint—it's so bright!—and scuff my shoes on the ground. "Where's Yukarin?"

"She's visiting a friend today, so she sent me here in her stead."

I don't say anything. I feel more comfortable around Yukarin. Yukarin's kinda scary, but I feel something strange inside me when I'm with her. It feels like I'm going to turn into a bird and fly into the air. If I could fly, that would be really cool! Genji says he can fly.

"I have to make a delivery and run some errands today. Do you want to come with me to the Human Village?"

"What's that?"

Ran looks surprised. "It's…oh, that's right, you're not from here, so you wouldn't know. This will be a good chance for you to find out." She stands up and holds her hand out to me. "Let's go."

* * *

_how does I 5-year old perspective_

_Okay, in all seriousness, this chapter was kind of a pain. I heard that children are fluent in their native language by five years old, but how big of a vocabulary do they have? It's especially a pain because the whole thing's in first person. Still, writing this was kind of interesting. It made me feel like I was writing a child's diary entry._

_When I was writing for Genji, I imagined him as a grandfatherly-type figure who takes things slowly (read: likely to fall asleep on a fishing trip), not being too strict because he's helping to watch over a small child._


	4. Chapter 4

It's mid-afternoon, now, so the classes Keine is teaching should be over soon. As the doors to the schoolhouse open, and children come pouring out, I hang back in the shade of the trees. It's not long before I see Keine follow the kids out of the building. Among the crowd I see some youkai. She's talking with Keine, which isn't something I've seen often. Keine normally drives youkai out. Well, I guess she's there because of that kid playing nearby. She said her name was Hakurei Reimu. Keine said they're those guys who used to bro around on a shrine at the top of some hill but I guess Reimu doesn't know that. She seems kind of sheltered.

"Onee-chan, what is this?"

"That's a wasp, don't touch it or you'll get stung." She's definitely sheltered if she doesn't even know what a wasp is.

Reimu lets it fly away. At least she's not afraid of it. She'll be needing that fearlessness. She'll most likely be living away from the Human Village, after all.

The afternoon rolls by like this. Keine and the youkai talk, and then head off into the village. I'm left with Reimu. Being in cohorts with a school teacher, I'm used to being surrounded by kids, so I don't really object to her hanging around me. As I watch the clouds roll by, the youkai comes back to pick her up.

It's another normal day, although it would've been troublesome if she had stuck around 'till nightfall.

* * *

_I suppose I should've mentioned this earlier, but I write at the pace of a snail. I'm ashamed at how short this is, but this will bridge the gap between the previous chapter and the next chapter, I think._


End file.
